


A Perfect Alliance

by koalasmiles



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, Fluff, James Potter Being an Idiot, One Shot, POV Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Robotics Competition, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, jily, robotics au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalasmiles/pseuds/koalasmiles
Summary: Lily did not like losing.When her and Remus' robotics team suddenly starts getting beaten by a team that they had never considered a threat, she gets curious.And when Remus has a source on that team? Nothing is going to stop her from finding out more about them. And their mysterious new mechanical lead...





	A Perfect Alliance

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, hope you like it!

In the Roarers pit, Lily blinked through her blurry eyes, staring at her screen. 

 

There was something wrong with this code. She knew that there was. And she had to find the bug before the next match.

 

“Lily? You’ve been staring at that same line of code for five minutes,” Remus broke her out of her trance with a cup of coffee.

 

“Oh thank god. There’s something wrong with this code and I can’t figure out what and we’re on in,” she glanced at her sheet, “two matches and if I don’t fix it the robot will spin in circles at top speed when it turns on. Again.”

 

Remus pulled the laptop over to him, and looked over her code.

 

“You accidentally deleted a decimal here.” He tapped a key. “All good now.”

 

Lily watched as the error message blinked away.

 

“You, Remus, are an absolute lifesaver.”

 

“Well, more like robot saver.” He joked. 

 

She pushed the code to the robot, and unplugged just as the drive team came up to take the robot to the field.

 

“So, Remus, what teams do we look out for this match?” Marlene asked, drawing the attention of the rest of the drive team to the scouter. 

 

“Well, always keep an eye on Storm Force, but also watch out for Griffbots. They came out of the blue this season. The third robot is a defense bot, so no worries there.”

 

“And are we with anyone good?”

 

“Blue Sand is alright, and I don’t have any info on our other partner.”

 

“It looks like we’re gonna have to be at our best to beat them then. Let’s go.”

 

As Marlene directed the other drivers to the queueing area, Lily dragged Remus to the stands to get a good spot for their match. 

 

“So what’s this about Griffbots? They’ve never been much of a threat.”

 

“It looks like they got a new building captain.” Remus replied, pointing out the sentence on his sheet.

 

“So? We all have turnover every year. What’s so different about this guy?”

 

“Well, my sources have been raving about him. Apparently he has a mind for mechanical components like no other.”

 

“Ah, yes. Your mysterious sources. That you only have for Griffbots. When will you let me meet him?” 

 

“I never said my source was a guy.” Remus mumbled, turning red. 

 

“No, but you just confirmed my suspicions. Maybe I’ll have to go to them and find him myself.”

 

Remus turned away to watch the field as the match began. 

 

Before time was even halfway up, Lily could tell who the winner would be. It was like the Griffbot’s robot was driving circles around the other robots. When the final score came onto the board, Lily could only groan. Their loss knocked the Roarers from first down to third. And who could have taken the top spot but the Griffbots. 

 

“Hey, at least the robot didn’t spin in a circle this time.” Remus nudged her. 

 

“Thank goodness that was only on the practice field. And don’t look so smug just because you’re getting cozy with the enemy.”

 

“The enemy? Don’t be a sore loser. We’re playing WITH them in our next two matches. Which reminds me, I have to go strategize.”

 

Lily tried to cheer up as Remus walked towards the pits, but she couldn’t help it. She loved winning. Besides, the Roarers worked too hard to be knocked down that easily. 

 

She got up and stormed towards the pits, determined to find Remus’ source. That would at least be a small victory. Instead, as she turned a corner, she smacked right into someone else. Off balance, he dropped the hammer he was holding right onto Lily’s foot. 

 

Lily yelped and grabbed for her foot. Unfortunately, the boy had bent down for the hammer and they smacked heads. 

 

With them both solidly on the ground, Lily turned her glare on him. 

 

“Do you often find joy in hurting people?” She spit out at him.

“I, er, no. Sorry. Are you okay?” He asked, leaning forward to check her head. His eyes were squinting behind his glasses, looking for any injury.

 

“I’m fine, no thanks to you.” She got up and started marching to the pits again.

 

She got to the Roarers pit just as the Remus waved someone off.

 

“Who was that?” She asked, trying to see over Remus’ shoulder.

 

“Just a person from our upcoming alliance. We have a good strategy going. Now I just need to tell the drive team about it.”

 

He walked off, leaving Lily alone in the pits to sulk. She usually wasn’t this sore after losing, but it had not been a good day so far. She looked to the side and found the coffee cup she had abandoned there to watch the match. Still warm. That lifted her spirits a little. She opened up her laptop to see if anything in the code could be improved. She could at least be helpful there. But there was nothing. 

 

She snapped her laptop shut and resigned herself to taking a walk around the pits. Maybe it would help to see the other teams.

 

* * *

 

 

She walked up to the Griffbots pit to see just one person hanging around. She thought he might be at least a small lead on who Remus’ source was.

 

She walked up to him. “Hey, do you happen to know a Remus?” 

 

He flicked his eyes to her. 

 

“I might know a Remus, but how can I know it’s the one you're talking about?”

 

She rolled her eyes. “Remus Lupin, tall, brown hair-”

 

“Oh, right, that Remus. Yeah, I know him.” the boy said, looking over her shoulder.

 

“Why can’t you just let my sources be kept secret?” Lily heard from behind her.

 

She turned to see an amused Remus staring at her.

 

“I might have been able to, if you actually had more than one source.” She quipped back. 

 

The boy came to stand next to Remus. 

 

“Sirius Black. You can call me Sirius. Or ‘Your Most Majestic Highness’. Whichever you prefer.”

 

“Sirius then. What do you-” She was cut off by being run into the second time today. She turned to look at the source, and realized it was the same boy from before.

 

She raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, I’m usually not this clumsy,” She didn’t get to hear the rest of his explanation because he was drowned out by Sirius’ laughter. 

 

“You really have the worst luck, mate.” He told him. 

 

The new boy turned to her.

 

“I’m James.” He offered her his hand.

 

She looked at his hand, covered in grease, and replied. “Lily.”

 

He looked down at his own hand and quickly drew it back, wiping it on a nearby rag as he turned red. 

 

Lily fought back a smile at this. 

 

“I see you lost the hammer.” She said, feeling bad for her fiery temper earlier.

 

James turned to her with a smile. 

 

“Yeah, we had to force a support back into place for the third time, so we decided to just leave it with the robot.”

 

“Good, so you won’t be dropping it on my foot again.”

 

“I really am sorry about that. Is your foot okay?” He asked, concern written on his face.

 

“Yeah, I was just having a really bad day.”

 

James nodded, and checked his watch. “Our next match is starting in 4 minutes, I should go watch.”

 

“Ours too. We’re actually playing with you guys.”

 

James lit up at this. “Do you want to come with me to watch?”

 

“I don’t see why not.”

 

* * *

 

 

Lily was exhausted from the long day. After two matches of cheering with James, Remus had pulled her away so that she could actually watch the matches with her own team. Lily definitely wasn’t thinking about how James had walked her back to the pits, or about how good he looked in safety glasses. That was not a thought she was having as she fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

Lily knew from experience that day two of the competition was always the most cutthroat. Teams trying to climb their way up the rankings, teams trying to defend their spots before alliance selection. The top eight teams got to pick alliances after the qualification matches, and Lily wanted more than anything to be on the number one alliance. 

 

Lily watched match after match with her team, until the last qualification match finally ended. Then it was time. Alliance selection. 

 

Lily grabbed Remus before he went down with the other representatives. 

 

“Pick well.”

 

“If I’ll have to pick at all.” Remus smirked.

 

“What do you-“

 

“Gotta go!”

 

And just like that Remus was gone, along with his secrets. Lily really wished he would just tell her straight out for once. She shook her head, sitting down to anxiously see what teams Remus would pick. 

 

The representatives lined up by where the teams placed at the end of the qualification matches. Lily watched anxiously as Remus took the seventh spot. She wished that they had done better that day to get a higher ranking, but with 40 teams there, she couldn’t really complain. 

 

The announcer walked up to Sirius to start alliance selection. Of course Griffbots ended up in first. 

 

“What team would you like to invite to join your alliance?”

 

“On behalf of the Griffbots, I would like to invite the Roarers to join our alliance.”

 

Lily watched in shock as Remus walked over to Sirius and the announcer. It was unusual for the highest ranked team to pick someone other than the second of third ranked team for their first pick.

 

“On behalf of the Roarers, we gratefully accept.”

 

The rest of alliance selection had passed in a blur. Lily didn’t even hear what the third team on their alliance was. She was ecstatic to be on the first alliance. She ate lunch in a daze, only being brought out of her thoughts by a tap on her shoulder. 

 

“I know it’s a little unusual, but would you want to, maybe, watch the finals matches with me?” James asked nervously. 

 

He was right, it was unusual for someone to watch the finals with a different team. But, she supposed, it was also unusual for the first ranked team to pick the seventh ranked team. 

 

“I would love to.”

 

* * *

 

 

Watching matches with James was the best feeling. Normally, during the finals, Lily had no idea what her surroundings were, only caring about the robots in front of her. But here, with James, she could somehow concentrate on both. She could keep track of the score and how his leg was pressed against hers. She could watch the robots and James’ fidgeting hands. During the time out before the final match, the one that their alliances needed to win in order to win the competition, she turned to him.

 

“Would you happen to be the new building captain that Remus told me about?”

 

James smiled at her.

 

“What gave it away?”

 

“You keep commenting on the components of various robots.”

 

“Oh. Right. Yeah, Sirius brought me into this team, and I fell in love with it pretty quickly.”

 

“It really does capture you, huh? That was me when I first figured out how to code. I’ve been programming our robot ever since.”

 

“It suits you,” he grinned down at her, “a fiery job for a fiery girl.”

 

“Oh, making ginger jokes now, are you?” She said with a raised eyebrow. The clock timed out, and the crowd started cheering.

 

James leaned down and whispered, “I wasn’t talking about your hair.”

 

Lily hid a grin at this.

 

* * *

 

 

The match was halfway through, and it was nearly tied. One alliance would score, then the other. It was neck and neck through the very end. The audience held their breath as they waited for the final score to be shown on the screen. 

 

When the screen lit up, it showed that the number one alliance had won by a single point. 

 

Lily jumped up cheering, and turned to hug James. It’s wasn’t a long hug, but it was enough time for Sirius to snap a picture. 

 

* * *

 

At their wedding, he would pull up the picture during his toast.

 

“I always knew that romance would blossom at that competition. It makes one’s heart happy to see two nerds in love.”

 

(Sirius, you were on the robotics team too.) (Yeah, James, but I was cool while doing it.)


End file.
